Category: Travel

Sinhagad, Sinhgarh, or Sinhgad (Marathi: सिंहगड, The Lion’s Fort), is a fortress located roughly 30 kilometres southwest of the city of Pune, India. Previously called Kondhana (Marathi: कोंढाणा).

We frequently visit Sinhgad fort. This video was taken on fort near “Samadhi” of Tanaji Malusare. Local narrator Shahir Dimbale gave us information about importance of Kondhana Killa ( Sinhgad ) & sung a Powada of Tanaji Malusare & Shivaji Maharaj .

Happy days are here again. Its monsoon and good time for trekkers. Last year ( Aug-2012) we had fantastic trek of Rajgad fort. I have posted a video 16 minute video of this trek on you tube. This is HD video of trek from Chor Darwaja way- Gunjawane Village. We also visited Balekilla , Suvela Machi.

This video was shot in Oct 2011 during a trek to Fort Torana. Fort Torana is highest mountain in Pune district. Photos of trekking are available on Picasa.

There is lot of information available on internet about fort Torana.

Velhe is base village of fort Torana. To goto Velhe village you can take bus from Swargate Pune or if you are driving yourself , there are two roads. One from Pune Bangalore highway & another from Khadkwasala – Pabe Ghat

We drove from Khadkwasala – Pabe Ghat route. This road is not very sooth but if you love to drive in Ghats & enjoy rain in nature you can go via this route.

From Pune we have to go towards Khadkwasala . Keep going to Sinhgad. When you reach near to Sinhgad take road to Panshet. Here you keep going on circumference of Sinhgad . You have to take a left for Velhe on this road . Keep watching for signs of Torana fort or Velhe. From Pabe ghat you can reach to Velhe & start climbing fort.

You can park your vehicles near police station & way to fort starts from there.

We had been planning to visit Harishchandragad for a long time. Harishchandragad is a “must visit” place for every trekker in Maharashtra.

Harishchandragad is a fort located on the borders of Pune, Thane & Ahmednagar districts. This fort is 1424 meter high from sea level. Fort has multiple ways to climb up. Most popular three ways are

Via Khireshwar – Moderate difficulty level & requires high endurance

Via Pachnai – Relatively Simple

Nalichi Wat – Most difficult & need professional mountaineering experience. You can choose to go with professional companies.

We selected a road Via Khireshwar.

We were four members of this group. We started from Pune early in the morning from 3:30 AM in my car.

Route :

Nashik Phata –> Rajgurunagar –> From Aale Phata take left towards Kalyan. Most of the websites & Google map tells a route which is to take right from Khubi Phata & reach to Khireshwar from the wall of Dam. We took this road but it road is really bad. But still, I dared to take the car on that road. This is not even tar road. There is another road to Khireshwar Via Pinpalgaon. This is a good road.

We reached on Dam wall from Khubi Phata at about 6:30 AM. Now Khireshwar was just 2 KM away & we are able to see the view of the fort. We had quick breakfast of Sandwiches & fruits there.

We reached Khireshwar village. Parked our car near a small cafe named “Hotel Aishwarya”.

We had quick tea at hotel Aishwarya & asked information about fort & way to fort to local villagers.

Me & Subhash in below photo with a grand view of Harishchandragad.

While planning this trip we were not sure if we can get food on the fort or not. We had a good amount of food with us for two days along with sleeping bag & three liters of water with each one of us. With heavy bags, we started walking towards the fort. We got bamboo sticks in had while walking to reduce pressure on knees when you carry heavy bags.

The road is not very stiff slope but you have to pass through from dry water canals & a lot of big stones.

Since we were going through the jungle it was cool so we were not getting tired due to sun heat.

This is the view of rock patch.

After one and half hour of climbing from the jungle, we saw this view of cliff. There is a small pass (Tolar Khind ) and there another road comes from Pachnai village. There is a rock patch. We carefully climbed rock patch with help of poles. Steps are carved out on a rock at some hard places which help.

I can not imagine climbing this fort in rains but local villagers say there is a lot of crowd in rainy season too.

There is sculpture of tiger near tolar khind. Some people say this is indicative of leopards in this area.

Local people say there are only wild boars in this jungle.

After this Tolar Khind, there is stiff rock patch. We climbed multiple small rough rocks. We also came across a trekkers group from Mumbai.

Had quick break after & before rock patch. At about 11:00 AM we reached the top of the fort. Now there is no hard climbing, just long walk on the plateau.

Views of valley

There are two ways to reach Kedareshwar temple on top. One is very simple but long . You have to go up and down seven hills ( elevations of land ).

Another way is to go towards balekilla & from there go to the temple. On this way, you have to go through dense jungle & some water streams. This way is okay in winter.

Route: From Pune drive towards Satara on Pune Bangalore highway. Take right turn near Nasarapur Village. This turn is about 20-25 Kms from Pune. Ask for Gunjavane Village or Rajgad fort “Chor Daravaja” path.

As per plan we started from Pune at 6:15 AM in the morning on two bikes. We took a quick breakfast at Nasarapure. Roads are in quite good conditions. We took a couple of breaks on the way. From Pune it is about 45 KMs of drive & takes 1.5 – 2 hrs to reach the base village of Rajgad [Gunjavane]. Reached base village Gunjavane at 8:30 AM.

Whenever we go for the trek we always start the travel early in the morning. This saves you from traffic & you have plenty of time at your disposal. When we were planning for treck; we were really not sure how much time this fort would take to climb. There are many informative blogs on Internet but the time required to climb the fort depends on that particular day’s conditions & your group’s energy level.

When we reached base village Gunjavane, we talked with local villagers to get more information about the village. As per them, there is no hotel/household food provision so one has to carry the food. But if there is a bigger group you can order food at base village & they supply you the dinner/lunch at the top of the fort. You have to pay a premium for this service 🙂

I decided to track the route using GPS on my Android phone ( Google Nexus ). I used Offline logger app to track the route. This app allows logging your GPS location with latitude-longitude & altitude. Later I exported GPX file & created a trail on everytrail. Every trail shows your GPS locations on a Map & photos can be geolocated based on timestamps.

We started hiking at 8:35 AM. There are many small ways to go to the fort. Better we ask local people to choose one. It was slippery & muddy for first few hundred meters. Then the way was good.

Below are some photos of this trek.

Subhas , Sandip & Rahul

The road to Chor Darawaja is a long way but not very difficult initially. My GPS trail shows it is about 4 KM of a walk to reach the Chor Darawaja. Last 100 meters of climbing is 75 degree & you have to hold railing & climb carefully.

We reached at the fort at 10:25 AM. We saw a villager & couple of groups from Mumbai on the fort. The Villager was selling curd. We had a chat with him. Few villagers come to the fort to sell curd, food for breakfast on weekends. Generally, no one comes on the fort on weekdays. [ Imp point to note if you are planning to go on weekdays].

We spent time near old broken palace, temple, “Sadar”. We reached BaleKilla . But the way was too tough to climb & it was all cloudy. So we decided to skip “Bale Killa” for this time due to slippery way.

We had lunch in the “Padmavati Mandir”. That time it was raining heavily. We started return journey to the base village at 1:30 PM. We did a careful & slow walk to avoid any slippage & injury.

Reached base village at 3:30 PM. A clean water river was flowing at Gunjavane. Reached Pune safely. It was very rainy, cold & windy while driving back to Pune on bikes. After such cold & shivering travel, the warmth of home feels invaluable !!

Aug-2012- Again we had fantastic trek of Rajgad fort. I have posted a video 16-minute video of this trek on youtube. This is HD video of a trek from Chor Darwaja way- Gunjawane Village. We also visited Balekilla, Suvela Machi.

Rajgad – King of all forts is at about 40km south west of Pune and is at a height of 4514 ft. Rajgad was home for Shivaji for over 25 years till he became Chhatrapati. The height of Rajgad from sea level is 4250 feet and offers spectacular views of Sahyadri Mountains.

Route :-
PUNE – Nasrapur Phata -Pali – Gunjawane

Useful tips:
Difficulty level is moderate. 3 1/2 hours via Gunjawane. The highest point of Rajgad is Balekilla which is a fort on Rajgad. Take plenty of water and some energy drinks with you as the trek is a bit tiring.
Places to see at Rajgad:
• PADMAVATI MACHEE: This is where you will find the Padmavati Lake, Chor Darwaja, Gunjawane Darwaja, Daru Kothar and a flag hoisting place.
• SANJAVEENI MACHEE: Machees were created so that soldiers could respond to an immediate/sudden attack. You can walk between the walls of this Machee.
• SUVELA MACHEE: Home of the leader Tanaji Malusare was here.
• BALE KILLA: Highest point of rajgad. You will be able to see the entire fort from Bale Killa.
• VIEW OF TORNA AND SINHAGAD

Sinhgad fort is the nearest fort to Pune city. On the weekend of 9th Jul 2011 me & my two colleagues Subhash Darade & Sandip Daware decided to climb up the Sinhgad fort for hiking. We got together near khadkwasala dam & took a quick breakfast from a street vendor.

There are two main ways to go to Sinhgad fort from the base. One road is ghat road using which one can go to the top ( Machi ) by vehicle. Another road is for trekkers. We selected the second option. We reached the base of the fort ( Donaje Village ). In this village, you can park your vehicles by paying nominal parking fees to villagers.

We started climbing at 8:20 AM.

At Donaje Village – the start of trekking

In below photo Sinhgad top looks hidden in the clouds. It was not raining much.

Sinhgad fort in the clouds

We started climbing. There were very few groups to accompany us. Generally, Sinhgad is a favorite destination of Pune people. We talked with one old couple getting down from the fort. They had started early in the morning & come down within two hours.

With few minutes of climbing, there was a beautiful view of a waterfall.

View of a waterfall on Sinhgad road

Such scenery is refreshing. One does not feel tiredness of the physical activity. There are tough to climb slopes. But always there is one hard to climb short way & one long but easy way. We were using tough routes.

Climbing Sinhgad fort is a test of your physical endurance. We took about two to three small breaks. Since all of us are regular in exercise so we managed to reach the first gate for fort within one hour & fifteen minutes.

Gate of Sinhgad fort

By the time we reached there, a lot of visitors already reached on the fort by vehicle using easy way. Many vendors sell boiled ground nuts, buttermilk, cucumber, raw mango etc food items.

Fort inside the gate is a huge area with a lot of points to see. At the entrance, there is a location map one can refer to

Location Map on the fort

Some pictures on the fort.

Sinhgad fort in the clouds

View of a water fall on Sinhgad road

Beautiful view of Maval Valley from Sinhgad

aslant paths

Gate of Sinhgad fort

Location Map on the fort

A cannon

Home of Tilak

Tanaji Malusare Samadhi

Cannon

Temple

View of fort

Cloudy

Cloudy view

We visited many points on the fort. Wind point is a place where high wind for valley comes on the fort. The wind is so high that you could hardly stand there. A small water stream falling in the valley was getting sprinkled up high in the air.

We walked all over the fort for a couple of hours & had typical Marathi lunch “Vange Bharit, Bhakari & Bhaji”

The weather on the fort was cloudy.

Cloudy viewCloudy

We took about one hour to come back down the fort. That was a really good experience. I also shot few videos. I shall post them here soon.